Tom Hanks looks set to play hero pilot Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood’s true story about a miraculous emergency landing.

The Saving Mr Banks star is in talks with Clint and Warner Brothers to take on the lead role in the as-yet untitled film about the US Airways pilot who made a dramatic emergency landing in New York’s Hudson River in 2009, according to Deadline.

Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood (Chris Pizzello/Invision)

His plane ran into trouble shortly after take off when a flock of geese got caught in the engines, but quick-thinking Sully managed to land in the river, saving all 155 people on board who clambered out onto the wings to wait to be rescued.

A US Airways plane crash landed in the Hudson River in 2009
Sully’s plane in the Hudson River (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

When Clint announced he would be making the film with Warner Brothers, plenty of people assumed that he would cast himself as the pilot – but with Tom’s turns in films including Apollo 13 and Captain Phillips, he’s an obvious choice to play a hero.

The film’s script has been adapted from Captain Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow’s book Highest Duty: My Search For What Really Matters.